In the Dog House (1934) User Reviews (3)

Kids, Dogs And Andy Clyde

[boblipton · 6/10 · 13 June 2019]

Vivien Oakland doesn't like husband Andy Clyde's rambunctious grandson -- Delmar Watson, another of the innumerable brood -- and keeps threatening to send him back to the orphanage in this early Columbia short for Mr. Clyde, one of more than two hundred he did for Jules White's unit.

Andy was 42 when he made this movie, but he had been playing older men for ten years, starting at Mack Sennett's film factory as a supporting comic. He prospered into the sound era, with his slow-talking, kindly character a bit of an odd duck at Columbia's shorts unit, where they favored hard-knock slapstick and characters who were not too bright. After his last short in 1956, he moved into episodic television with recurring roles in THE REAL MCCOYS, NO TIME FOR SERGEANTS and LASSIE, finally growing into his character's age. He died in 1967.

Not especially funny...and a tad cruel.

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 17 July 2018]

"In the Dog House" is a misfire from Columbia Pictures that stars Andy Clyde. When the story begins, Andy has remarried and his new wife has learned only now that Andy was married before and has a grandchild who is now an orphan. I can understand her being upset....but this witch wants Andy to send the boy to an orphanage! This is a singularly unfunny situation and there really aren't many laughs in this one....and how could there be?? Overall, it's a short film that was poorly written and unpleasant.

With a wife like this, I'd never have an appetite.

[mark.waltz · 2/10 · 14 September 2023]

Vivien Osborne is the mentally abusive wife of Andy Clyde, hating the fact that Andy has taken in his grandson by a daughter who died and making her disgust clear. This one dimensional woman is hard to watch because of her actions, wanting to send young Delmar Watson to the orphanage, and manipulating Clyde with fake sweetness that makes it obvious that she only married Clyde for his money.

Even when she goes out of her way to save her beloved dog accidentally picked up by the pound, she never goes beyond a soulless shrew, not a flattering look for Osborne who often played such characters. There's a high speed chase at the end of the film that's the saving grace of the film, with a tag line that just doesn't land as intended. Definitely one of the worst Clyde short.